Friday, July 22, 2011

Most Annoying Office Habits

Happy Friday! Today I'm delighted to feature author Lisa Lim. But before I get to that, if anyone is the UK and is interested in writing short stories, please check out Helen Hunt's upcoming course on July 30th. Helen is fab and she's a super-successful short-story author -- and there are still a few spaces left!

Right, over to Lisa:

A colleague of mine (let’s call her Janet) clips her fingernails at work. I’ll be conversing with a customer, and in the background I’ll hear the maddening Clip Clip ClipClip sounds resonating in my ears, sounding very much like Japanese water torture.

Then Janet will sand her nails with vigor, causing a plume of nail dust to settle on my desk. Next she’ll whip out ten bottles of nail polish and perform a mani and pedi, and thus fumigating the entire office.

I personally would never floss, pick my nose, use Q-tips or cotton swabs, pop my blackheads or shave my pits at work. That is why it is called personal hygiene.

Care to share your office gripes? Or are you guilty of perpetrating these crimes?

To quote Moliere ~ “Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.” So ehrmm . . . *COUGH*. . . if you’d like to check out the works of this whore, my chick lit novel Confessions of a Call Center Gal (it’s Bridget Jones meets The Office) is available on paperback and Kindle on Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. If you find politically incorrectshows like The Office, South Park and Chelsea Lately detestable, childish and offensive, then this book is probably NOT for you.

46 comments:

I found this quite amusing although to you it's annoying, When I workded in an office in my teens there was one man who was always cleaning his ears with cotton wool buds, one day he went down too far and the bud disappeared......he end up in hsopital .

To Talli,I had a parcel delivered yesterday,inside was your book, was up half the night reading it , so far it's excellent, well done.Yvonne.

Thanks for the mention Talli. If people are interested but can't make 30 July, I'm now taking bookings for later in the year as well. Anyone who's interested is very welcome to contact me via my blog if they have any queries.

At the moment, my colleague sitting across me has her earphones on, listening to a radio programme and every so often chortles like a maniac. Then goes silent. Then chortles like a maniac. Then goes silent. Then chortles.. oh you get the picture! LOL!

Any personal hygience in the office makes you wonder what else they forgot to do (business-wise); but, my biggest pet peeve is the office worker who uses your desk supplies and tools because they don't have the time to go to the end of the room and get them from the supply room. Of course, they don't return yours, either. That's what you do in grade school and, by the time you can get a job, you've learned to get your act together -- or, maybe not.

Ha! I hated when someone would come up behind me and look at my computer over my shoulder. Even my supervisor. I'd tell the caller to please hold and whirl around and ask, "Can I help you?" It got them skittering away. Oh...I really don't like that.

LOL! I had a boss who was about 15yrs my junior who sniffed perpetually rather than blow his nose. It got so bad I say how sorry I was that on his salary he couldn't afford a hankie. He looked v sheepish and blew his nose!Thanks for the link to the course and book sounds fab :O)

Thank you for the tip. One of the worst office habits, which my scientist friend has told me about - one of her colleagues conducted smelly experiments in the shared laboratory rather than a closed one.

Right now my biggest office pet peeve (well, general peeve that started in the office) is when people use the word 'literally' to mean 'figuretively'. It drives me completely and figuretively round the bend!!

hi miss talli and miss lisa! for sure you got me laughing so much bout that nail clipping stuff. my sister does that when us guys are watching tv and it gets us crazy. ack! i hope you have a real nice and fun weekend....hugs from lenny

Lisa, lol! Oh my. One of the most annoying sounds, imo, was made by a worker who just wouldn't blow their nose so we had the dubious pleasure of listening to them sniff and snort. This was some time ago, but we bought the guy several boxes of tissues and put them on his desk. You know what he said? It was bad manners to blow ones nose in public. wtf? I informed him it was even worse to snort and sniff the contents in his nose rather than blow it. Gah!

Of course, I work from home now and like Nancy, the worse I deal with is a dog with gas or a cat with a hairball. I can live with it, lolol!

icky! I had a share office, and one colleague would not only leave nail clippings all over the desk and computer, but generously shared cold germs by sneezing over the keyboard, then leaving used tissues there too. UGH! Sue

How inconsiderate! Yuk! I had a nursing colleague who used to take her favourite fruit sweets out of our 'patient gift box', she used to lick them then rewrap and put on her side of the desk. It went on for months. One day another colleague coated them with chilli powder, her face was a picture. We all enjoyed fruit sweets after that.

This really does sound pretty annoying. I'm often amazed how little some people think about the things they do around other people, but I guess it has a whole lot to do with upbringing. I haven't worked in an office environment in 30 years and that was in a call center. After that I was either not tied down to an office or worked in an office by myself--what heaven!

I love Family Guy, so I guess I'll like it! Seems like there's one person in every office who addresses hygiene issues in public. I also worked as a retail manager, and what the customers do...well, let's just say I now avail myself of hand sanitizer while shopping. I may seem OCD, but I saw some awful things on the store security tapes. (I'll spare you the details.)

About Me

I write bittersweet and witty contemporary women's fiction. Born and raised in Canada, I now live in London, where I savour the great cultural life (coffee and wine).
Despite training as a journalist, I soon found I preferred making up my own stories--complete with happy endings. My novels have been short-listed as Best Romantic Reads at the UK's Festival of Romance and chosen as top books of the year by industry review websites.
To learn more about me, go to www.talliroland.com or follow me on Twitter: @talliroland.